A Net Gain Planning Tool (NGPT) for a Green Recovery of the Built Environment Sector

越来越多的呼吁和政策要求从新的发展中获得环境净收益。这是因为环境越来越被视为一种有益于人们健康、福祉和繁荣的宝贵和多功能资产。环境净收益是一种使自然环境处于比以前更好的状态的方法，符合英国政府的25年环境计划。正如首相所认识到的那样，建筑环境是从COVID-19大流行中恢复的核心，也是未来可持续增长的核心。建筑环境领域一个尚未解决的关键挑战是如何客观地衡量和评估环境净收益。这个由WSP和生态系统知识网络（EKN）领导的实验性研究项目的目的是共同开发一个净收益规划工具（NGPT），使建筑环境专业人员能够客观地评估和衡量新计划或开发在多大程度上实现了环境净收益。我们将建立强有力的跨学科合作伙伴关系，以发展NGPT，目标是成为一个被广泛接受的英国行业标准-建筑环境领域的游戏规则改变者。NGPT将公开提供并免费使用。NGPT用户需要输入一系列简单的指标，如开发前后的土地使用和绿色空间可达性。在此基础上，该工具将计算土地使用变化对多达20种生态系统服务、身心健康、生物多样性的影响，并评估在多大程度上实现了环境净收益。生物多样性评估将只适用于英格兰以外的地区，因为英格兰已经有了评估生物多样性净收益的工具。一些评估土地利用变化对环境服务影响的工具已经可用，并为NGPT的发展提供了跳板。然而，这些工具都没有回答环境净收益是否已经实现的关键问题。NGPT将通过结合现有工具的最佳功能来推进现有工具，通过例如评估身心健康益处来增加价值，以证据为基础，但易于使用，提供易于解释的结果，回答一个关键问题，即一项计划或发展是否根据国家和地方政策实现了环境净收益，允许地方规划当局预先确定新开发项目的净收益，这也将提高开发商的规划安全性，为超越最低净收益要求制定激励措施，并成为与该部门共同制定的广泛接受的行业标准。总体而言，NGPT不仅有助于使未来的土地使用更具可持续性，同时也使建筑环境部门能够发挥更积极的作用，成为解决环境问题的净贡献者-这是一个潜在的游戏-由于我们的目标是建立一个全行业的合作伙伴关系，共同开发NGPT，我们邀请感兴趣的建筑环境专业人士和利益相关者联系我们的项目经理奥利弗Hoelzinger（oliver. wsp.com），了解参与机会。

There are growing calls and policies demanding environmental net-gain from new developments. This is because the environment is increasingly seen as a valuable and multi-functional asset that benefits people's health, well-being and prosperity. Environmental net-gain is an approach to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than before, in line with HM Government's 25 Year Environment Plan.As recognized by the Prime Minister, the built environment is central to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future sustainable growth. A key challenge for the built environment sector which is yet to be resolved is how environmental net-gain can be objectively measured and assessed.The aim of this experimental research project lead by WSP and the Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN) is to co-develop a Net Gain Planning Tool (NGPT) to enable built environment professionals to objectively assess and measure to what extent new plans or developments achieve environmental net-gain. We will establish a strong cross-disciplinary partnership to develop the NGPT with the aim to become a widely accepted UK industry standard -- a game changer for the built environment sector. The NGPT will be made publicly available and free to use.The NGPT-user will need to enter a range of simple indicators sch as land-use and green space accessibility before and after development. On that basis the tool will calculate the impact of the land-use change on up to 20 ecosystem services, physical and mental health, biodiversity and assess to what extent environmental net-gain has been achieved. The biodiversity assessment will only apply outside England as England already has a tool to assess biodiversity net-gain.Some tools to assess the impact of land-use changes on environmental services are already available and provide a springboard for the NGPT development. However, none of these tools answers the crucial question of whether environmental net-gain has been achieved.The NGPT will advance existing tools by combining the best features of existing tools, adding value by for example also assessing physical and mental health benefits, being evidence-based and yet easy to use, providing outcomes that are easy to interpret, answering the critical question of whether a plan or development achieves environmental net-gain based on national and local policies, allowing local planning authorities to pre-define what is expected from new development in terms of net-gain which will also enhance planning security for developers, setting incentives for going above and beyond minimum net-gain requirements, and becoming a widely accepted industry standard co-developed with the sector.Overall, the NGPT will not only help to make future land-use more sustainable, but also to enable the built environment sector to play a more positive role by becoming a net-contributor to tackling environmental issues -- a potential game-changer for the sector as well as people and wildlife in the UK and beyond.As we aim to establish a sector-wide partnership to co-develop the NGPT, we invite interested built environment professionals and stakeholders to contact our project manager Oliver Hoelzinger (oliver.hoelzinger@wsp.com) regarding involvement opportunities.